Hastings attorney on track for NLRB board confirmation

Kent Hirozawa of Hastings on Hudson is on the fast track to become a member of the National Labor Relations Board.

The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee held a confirmation hearing earlier today for Hirozawa and is expected to vote Wednesday to send his nomination to the Senate floor.

Confirmation could come later this week.

Hirozawa, who attended the hearing accompanied by his wife, Lynn Kelly, and children Nora and Miles, would the first Asian-American to serve on the panel. All four of his grandparents immigrated to Hawaii from Japan. He grew up in Michigan.

Hirozawa has lives in Hastings more than 20 years and currently serves as chief counsel for the NLRB in Washington. His wife works in Manhattan as the executive director of the City Bar Justice Center.

Hirozawa and fellow labor lawyer Nancy Schiffer, who retired last year as associate general counsel of the AFL-CIO, were nominated earlier this month by President Obama as part of a compromise deal with Senate Republicans who objected to two other nominees, Richard Griffin and Sharon Block.

Griffin and Block were appointed to the NLRB by Obama as recess nominees in late 2011, but Republicans objected that Obama made the appointand then installed on recess appointments illegally because the Senate was not officially in recess. A federal appeals court recently upheld the position taken by Senate Republicans.

Senate Republicans have agreed to not block a vote on the Hirozawa and Schiffer nominations.

Washington correspondent Brian Tumulty has worked at the Gannett Washington Bureau since October 1992 covering the economy, taxes and organized labor as well as serving as Washington correspondent for newspapers in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Born in Queens and a graduate of Fordham University, Tumulty spent 15 years in Westchester covering Yonkers city hall and reporting on business.

Finally the obstructionist Republicans decide to cooperate with the President and the Democrats for the good of working middle class taxpayers. Most middle class taxpayers are living paycheck to paycheck and would greatly benefits from the laws that they NLRB will enforce.
Of course Republicans tried to totally wipe out the NLRB by holding up appointments to the board for years due to Boehner and McConnell who are only working for CEOs and billionaires.